Container pool shrinkage is an issue that has a costly impact on OEMs and tier suppliers across the automotive industry. At various points in the extended supply chains which support today’s vehicle manufacturing operations, containers go missing, are misused or are even stolen to be resold and used elsewhere – in the industry or outside it. Lack of visibility over the movements of containers makes it hard to put a number on the scale of the problem, but one carmaker attending an ideas lab at the Automotive Logistics Global conference in Detroit last year said it would be easy for an OEM to lose 10% of its pool.

Given that one vehicle-maker and its suppliers may have hundreds of thousands of containers in circulation, the combined total loss for the industry is sure to be vast, with significant implications for costs, efficiency and sustainability…